DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In one commercial, a mother says she hasn’t seen her son since he left eight months ago. The scene cuts to a young man laying face down on a rocky shore, as Senegal’s most famous troubadour says, “You know how this story ends.”

A small boat loaded with 73 Senegalese would-be migrants sails off the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain.

“Don’t risk your life for nothing. You are the future of Africa,” singer Youssou N’Dour tells the camera, sitting alone at night on a beached boat in one of a series of ads funded by the government of Spain, whose prosperity has lured Senegalese and other Africans desperate to escape grinding poverty at home.

Determined to curb the influx of illegal migrants, Spain has gone on the offensive [bufff, Zapatero on the offensive, this is unbelievable….], pouring $1.4 million into media campaigns in Senegal aimed at highlighting the risks of dangerous sea journeys that have claimed countless lives.

In 2006, 31,000 Senegalese reached Spain’s Canary Islands on fragile wooden boats, braving 10-days at sea and possible dehydration, starvation and death. So far this year, 7,000 more have made it. Nobody knows how many have been died trying; the boats and bodies of the unsuccessful are usually lost at sea. Otero said Spain’s best guess was that 20 to 50 percent die along the way.

Earlier this month, a migrant boat capsized just yards off the craggy coast of the Canaries, west of the Moroccan coast. Six people survived; 10 others drowned.

Djibril Diagne, a 38-year-old electrician, said the ads were unlikely to have impact because “the root causes of our problems remain. There are no solutions, no jobs for our youth.” As for the migrants, “if they get the chance to go, they’re going to take it,” he said.

Dario Otero, charge d’affaires at the Spanish Embassy in Dakar, said the ads were part of a broader effort to crack down on migrants that has included coastal patrols, diplomacy and deportation.